another box

It's not well known but Where I live (Malvern, Ohio) I do not have home mail delivery.  All home delivery is done by vehicle of one sort or another and to get home delivery you must live at least 1/4 mile away from the post office and be on a delivery route.   I live a block away from the P.O. and of course am not on a route.
So for the last 30 years I walk the block to the P.O. get my mail and walk home.  I know this is a really boring read but there is a point forthcoming.
12 years ago a neighbor girl moved from an apartment next to our house and didn't take her long hailed black female cat with her and she (the cat) had taken up residence under my shed.  It took me all summer to coax her into the garage to eat and then I had to be sneaky about how high the garage door was because when I closed the door she bolted.  I finally got her to eating closer to the man door into the house and it was easier to close the door.  
With winter coming I bought a dog kennel (the fold up type) and set it on a platform digital scale so it was off the floor.   Food, water, a sheep skin bed and a heat lamp with a blanket over the cage to hold the heat seemed to make her happy.  It was 3 or 4 months before she would allow me to pet her and every morning when I opened the garage door she took off somewhere and I would leave the door up about a a foot or so in the evening  so she could get in to 'bed'    When I couldn't see her nearby I clapped my hands and whistled  - damned if she didn't respond to that and that became our 'thing'.   Whenever I wanted her to come in, whistle and clap  -  here she came.
As it turned out she finally took a liking to me and just loved being brushed on occasion.  So now she's part of the household but in the garage - I brought her in the house a couple time but she ran to the door and wanted back to the garage.  
Every day when I got up I would make a cup of coffee, open the garage door and watch the world thru the garage as I sat at the table having coffee.
At 10:30 every week day I would go to the P.O. for our mail.  As I left the P.O. and started walking home I could see a shadow under my wife's car and when I got about 10 feet from the car she would come out from under and without leaving the concrete pad, she chirped and came to me to get petted.  That was a daily event for most of the 12 years. 
About 2 years ago I noticed that my cat was losing weight.  Took her to the vet - bloodwork revealed nothing and the vet asked me how old she was.  I don't know how old she was when she adopted us but the neighbor had told us somebody had given her the cat and that she had an established demeanor.  An educated guess put her at 17 plus years old and thus explaining the weight loss.
I took her to the vet again 3 months ago and got the same answers as before so I brought her home.
She kept deteriorating and I noticed that she was having difficulty jumping up into her house so I started feeding her on the garage floor.  When I noticed last Thursday that she was having difficulty even walking and her weight had gone down to 4 lbs.  I made the heartbreaking decision.
I am so ashamed that in our 12 year friendship I failed to get even one picture of Puss and today I picked up my friend at the vet's office.